Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Authorities are declining to identify the parents-- now deceased-- out of sensitivity to surviving family.

Or to put it another way, they're not identifying the parents who never reported him missing out of sensitivity to his siblings, and will leave it to everyone to speculate why.

This case has been a big deal to literally generations of investigators in this area. Even if legal justice is unlikely, giving the boy a name is huge.

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(Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/8/2023)

Also referred to as the “Boy in the Box,” the child was discovered Feb. 26, 1957. Decades of investigation led to few developments in the case, but with continued detective work and advances in modern DNA testing, investigators were finally able to reveal his identity on Thursday.

“In his very short life, it was apparent that this child experienced horrors that no one should ever be subjected to,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference. “When people think about the Boy in the Box, a profound sadness is felt. Not just because the child was murdered, but because his entire identity and his rightful claim to own his existence was taken away.”

Now, with the boy’s identity revealed, there is a small amount of closure in the case. But it still remains an active homicide investigation.

Here is what we know:

Who was the Boy in the Box?

The Box in the Box’s name was Joseph Augustus Zarelli. He was born Jan. 13, 1953, and died in 1957, when he was just four years old. He never had a social security number issued to him, and no missing persons report was ever filed, police said Thursday.

Joseph’s family resided in West Philadelphia near the area of 61st and Market during his life, said Capt. Jason Smith, commanding officer of the Homicide Unit. There are a number of living family members, but police did not say where they live or reveal any further details. The boy’s mother and father, whom police declined to identify, are deceased.

Joseph’s death certificate will be amended to reflect his birth name, police said. The Vidocq Society, a Philadelphia-based group that works on unsolved homicides, plan to work with Ivy Hill Cemetery, where Joseph is buried, to put the boy’s name on his grave.
How did the Boy in the Box die?

After Joseph’s body was found, an autopsy found that he was emaciated and had sustained abrasions, contusions, a subdural hemorrhage, and pleural effusions. His cause of death was likely blunt force trauma, Smith said.

How was the Boy in the Box identified?

Police have attempted to identify Joseph for decades, dating back to the day his body was found. Techniques such as canvassing the city with informational posters, providing photos of his body posed in clothing, and checking local orphanages and foster homes yielded no conclusive results.

Philadelphia Inquirer Link

Makes my heart ache for the innocent and helpless.

I remember well when they exhumed him in 1998 to do DNA testing and to re-inter him. What a sad story, it sounds like it may have been the parents all along.

I’m certain they are long gone now and escaped justice in this world but I’m sure they didn’t in the next.

May the Lord receive, protect, and comfort the soul of Joseph Augustus Zarelli...as well as all the other missing and forgotten children.

And God bless all the investigators who dedicate a portion of their careers and time to doing this work, in trying to both give some measure of justice to the victims and their families as well as giving a face to the faceless. I realize it's often thankless work that largely goes unnoticed... but I am still grateful there are those who do it.

We weren't put on this earth to see children and the innocent suffer and die.

Just saw an article from a guy in Northeast Philly who said he thinks the father of this child was a great uncle of his. Makes you really wonder what had really happened.

Since the kid was not reported as a missing person, my overly suspicious cop mind thinks the parents are responsible. Either by omission or commission.
The advanced DNA work on these older cases is amazing, but time makes prosecution a difficult or impossible.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Since the kid was not reported as a missing person, my overly suspicious cop mind thinks the parents are responsible. Either by omission or commission.

Well-founded, IMO. There was evidence of longterm physical abuse and malnourishment, coupled with the whole "no report" aspect.

Reading some of the online comments on the articles is every bit as depressing as you'd expect: "Why are they wasting resources on this? How about investigating the murders that happened in Philadelphia this week," etc. Well... because, that's why. Because murdered four-year-olds deserve a name and an accounting of the "who" and "why," even if it takes 60 years. Trust me, they're still working on accountability for the thug that shot another thug last weekend.

This case haunted some of the original detectives on the case to the end of their days. I'm happy for the win, even if in the end it's just giving Joseph his name.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Since the kid was not reported as a missing person, my overly suspicious cop mind thinks the parents are responsible. Either by omission or commission.
The advanced DNA work on these older cases is amazing, but time makes prosecution a difficult or impossible.

The Philly PC and others at the press conference basically inferred that it was the long-dead parents but they weren’t going to release names out of respect for any still-living children.

I have 5 and 7 year old boys and the thought of them being abused and beaten like this little boy was makes my blood boil. I’d like to think a just and righteous God gave the killers their rightful Justice when they left this earth.

The discovery of Joseph'e identity brings up a whole new bunch of questions, that maybe the surviving family members or relatives can shed some light on.

Was Joseph abducted? Were his parents abusive? Why wasn't he ever reported missing? Why have Joseph's relatives & family members kept quiet about this all these years?